Australian Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is significantly higher on Thursday, extending the gains in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 staying above the 7,500 level to a nine-month highs, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, with strong gains in gold mining and technology stocks partially offset by weakness in iron ore mining and energy stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 43.30 points or 0.58 percent to 7,545.00, after touching a high of 7,548.20 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 50.30 points or 0.65 percent to 7,760.00. Australian stocks ended modestly higher on Wednesday.

Among major miners, Rio Tinto is losing almost 2 percent and Fortescue Metals is edging down 0.5 percent, while Mineral Resources and BHP Group are down almost 1 percent each. OZ Minerals is flat.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Beach energy, Origin Energy, Santos and Woodside Energy are all losing more than 1 percent each.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is gaining more than 4 percent, Xero is surging almost 7 percent, Zip is advancing more than 7 percent, Appen is adding almost 1 percent and WiseTech Global is advancing more than 5 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and ANZ Banking are flat, while National Australia Bank and Westpac is edging up 0.2 percent each. Among gold miners, Northern Star Resources is gaining almost 5 percent, Newcrest Mining is adding almost 4 percent, Evolution Mining are surging almost 7 percent, Resolute Mining is advancing more than 5 percent and Gold Road Resources is up 4.5 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.715 on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply higher late in the trading session on Wednesday, as traders reacted positively to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement. With the upward move, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 reached their best closing levels in four months.

The major averages all finished the day in positive territory, although the Dow inched up just 6.92 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 34,092.96. The Nasdaq surged 231.77 points or 2.0 percent to 11,816.32, while the S&P 500 jumped 42.61 points or 1.1 percent to 4,119.21.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the German DAX Index rose by 0.4 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index both edged down by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil futures fell to a three-week low on Wednesday, weighed down by data showing an increase in crude inventories last week in the U.S. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March sank $2.46 or 3.1 percent at $76.41 a barrel.